Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Halloween Greetings and Cheer!

Friends, Halloween is almost here.
Time to buy your pumpkins if you
have not already done so. Get your
carving knives ready to make some
wonderful Jack O'Lanterns, as well
as some wonderful pumpkin pies!
Put up your scarecrows, your witches,
your black cats, your ghosts, and your
other figures and figurines for decor!
Then settle back with some lovely
pumpkin latte', turn on your radio or
TV, and catch the Benghazi hearings taking
place in Congress! See the horrifying witch
Hillary Clinton lie about her part in the
tragedy, then lie to cover her lies!

And remember everything that you see and hear
from the hearings if she wins the Democrat Party's
nomination! Come Election Day you can pass
your own judgement on her and her party!
Send her off on her broom!


MEM

Thursday, October 22, 2015

A Story That Should Be in the Funnies!

Om Thursday, October 15, your amused Peasant
read an article in the Wall Street Journal's Opinion
section, "Democrats Say The Economy Stinks".
This piece looked like it could have appeared in
The Onion, an online satirical publication which
makes up wonderful fall-down funny headlines
and stories which poke fun at real-life people,
places and events, but it in fact appeared in the
WSJ!

It discussed the recent Democrats' presidential
candidates' debate which had ex-First Lady (and
a few other ex-things) Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen.
Bernie (the Socialist) Sanders, ex-U.S. Sen. Jim
Webb, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, and
ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley duking it out
in what seemed to be more of "more-liberal-than-
thou" contest. As I myself listened to the event on the
radio, I can tell you that while it had many moments
where one would think, "typical of them!", there were
some genuinely funny moments to enjoy, one being
where the candidates actually admitted(!) that our
nation's economy is in crisis mode. Sen. Sanders
thundered about the American middle class
disappearing over the past 40 years with American
workers working longer hours for less wages, with
almost all of the newly created wealth accruing to
the "top 1%". Ah, yes, those dastardly one-per centers
who the lefties love to hold responsible for the
rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,
while the middle-class slowly slips away down the
drain. And the funny bit here is the fact that not only
did the other candidates not contest Sanders' remarks,
but they each agreed with him, each saying so in so
many words!

Memo to the 2016 Democrat hopefuls: who has been in
the White house since January 2009 and is still there,
finishing his final term? Whose economic policies
have we had all this while? Hint: they bear his name
--- "Obamanomics"! What are you jerks trying to pull?
Not ALL of the country's electorate are "low information
voters"! You really believe that we are all, or are nearly
all a bunch of single-digit IQ peasants, bumpkins, and
nincompoops! If our national economy is in such sad
shape, then that is on your leader, and on YOU!

Now we have heard of candidates for public office,
having been nominated by their political party to
succeed the departing incumbents from same party,
running against their record while in office. But an
entire lineup of candidates from one party, each seeking
to succeed their incumbent, trashing his record (even
though not mentioning him by name) as if he were from
the opposition party? Really? Moreover, Gov. O'Malley
declared that the president shouldn't be held responsible
for the economy we presently have because he's not a
"magician". Really! Furthermore, the Dem candidates
all took pokes at the Republican-held Congress, blaming
them for the state of the economy, even blaming the last
GOP president, George W. Bush and his tax cuts, which
were enacted 12 years ago and have since been done
away with by the current Democrat president! Priceless!
Robert Ripley, call your office! Check out the Democrat
presidential pack who, to an individual, are using the
sickly economy which THEIR party's outgoing incumbent
president made sickly, as a talking point! A million laughs!
It would be even funnier if it were not reality! Thanks
ever so much to the Wall Street Journal for mentioning
this spectacle in its editorial section.

But the message from the Democrat presidential candidates
is no laughing matter: In the six years we so far have had of
this misbegotten president from their own party, American
workers and their families are suffering greatly in an economy
with the snares of disappearing decent-paying jobs, stagnant
paychecks (for those that still receive them), growing
income inequality, along with a system which has been rigged
to pump even more cash into the accounts of billionaires
(many of them supporters of the current president and his party!)
while bypassing ever-toiling Working Joes and Janes.
The exact same charges that the Democrats constantly hurl at
the Republicans, even when the Dems are in power. And those
horrible one-per centers? They are, as a matter of fact, overwhelm-
ingly DEMOCRATS! Gee, my fabulous readers, wouldn't
you LOVE to hear the Dem White House chasers explain why
this is so?

When it comes to sheer disingenuousness, arrogant elitism,
raping the truth, breathtaking hypocrisy, and a complete
divorce from shame (not to mention absolute ignorance of the
word), the Democrats are the undisputed champions! And if we
don't break their hold on the presidency in 2016 We the People
will be the undisputed chumpions, and our prize will be the
very government and governance we will deserve.


MEM



Bernie Sanders' Consolation Prize

Maverick Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent
senator and self-proclaimed socialist who caucuses
with the Democrats (he fits right in!) may not win
the Democrats' presidential nomination, but he may
yet win their future.

Like the British Labor Party's recently elected
party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Sanders turns off
many voters and even makes some Democrat
party bigwigs uncomfortable, the latter not so
much for his political views and ideas but for
being rather raw and unbridled in his expressing
them. The former simply want no more to do
with socialistic, Big-Government-knows-all-and-
is-the-solution-for-everything presidents after
suffering through two terms of the present one.
But Sanders may yet leave his mark on the party
which he caucuses with, as may Corbyn in
regards to his party. While in agreement with
the Democrats on many issues: taking an
isolationist view toward foreign policy, at the
very least being "hands off" on the Middle
East leaving our only true ally there, Israel,
to fend for itself against an increasingly nuclear
Iran and a host of cabals of radical Islamist thugs;
The U.S. stepping down from its longtime lead role
in world affairs; increased subsidies for, among other
things, college; a $15/hour minimum wage, and
higher/more taxes on the most productive people
and on businesses of all sizes, Bernie isn't quite
"one of the gang" in the Beltway club. He is not,
for example, a full-fledged member of either of the
two major political parties, and he can be a bit too
forward, too impolitic, for the Democrats' comfort,
thus putting pressure on the Dems to either take a
"me too" stand alongside Sanders or to downplay
Sanders and his ideas, thus alienating much of the
party base which has slid ever-leftward in recent years,
with the Dems along for the ride. Sanders is merely
capitalizing on the party's leftward tack.

Again, Sanders merely caucuses with the Senate
Democrats; he is not a full member, let alone a holder
of a leadership position, unlike Corbyn of the U.K.
Labor Party.

However, Sanders can still influence the Democrats'
platform and policies for years to come even without
winning the party's nomination, let alone the general
election. For a start, Sanders already provides the logical
end point of the party's progress to the far reaches to the
far Left; Everything is free! Well, at least until April 15
rolls around and the bill for it all comes due. Meanwhile,
payments in another kind will be collected, such as the
forfeiture of our rights and liberties as government
encroaches all the more upon us with its endless regulations,
taxes, and consequential erosion of our freedoms. A most
precious and priceless currency, to be paid for the growth
and empowerment of the do-all state.

Thus Senator Sanders would win a heck of a consolation prize
in the process, a prize which would rival the top prize in terms
of magnitude and importance. It would be like a dormant bomb,
with its timer set for its explosion, and that fateful time being
whenever another Democrat is elected president. The Democrat
Party of today is not at all your father's Democrat Party, and it
will be even father removed from it in the future, thanks in no
small part to Bernie Sanders.

Pretty good going for a presidential candidate who is not in a
party leadership position and is not likely to win election to
the presidency.


MEM



Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The British Obama

It seems that the British Labor Party is taking
a turn quite similar to that which the Democrat
Party here in the United States had taken seven
years earlier. The U.K. Labor Party has tacked
hard --- and I do mean hard --- left. This is
apparent from the election that party members
recently held to choose their new party leader,
who will now be their point man in the House
of Commons, leading them in opposition to
the ruling Conservative Party.

MP Jeremy Corbyn was elected in what can best
be described as a left-wing fever, fueling a desire
to return to the days when the Labor Party was
getting its collective clock cleaned by the Tories,
and Margaret Thatcher was Great Britain's counterpart
to our President Ronald Reagan who was our leader
during that period. The Conservatives were seen as
the party of prosperity and stability while the Laborites
were viewed as the part of stagnant statism and boundless
extremism. Labor finally succeeded in getting a Labor
Prime Minister elected when they ran Tony Blair,
a more moderate, reasonable left-winger who didn't
frighten the British electorate with totalitarian
views and plans for micro-managing the country.
So why the retrogression?

Blair realized that after the Labor governance
disasters in the 1970s, his party needed to demonstrate
that it was not hostile to markets and was not out
to undermine Britain's allies and cozy up to its enemies.
Corbyn, on the other hand, wants more exorbitant taxes,
renationalization of industries formerly run by the government
(such as the railways), Britain out of NATO, Britain's
backing of Hamas and Hezbollah, and cessation of military
action against Islamic State (ISIS). Corbyn makes our
President Obama look like Ronald Reagan!

Corbyn's ascent to the top of his party is causing consternation
among many of his party's faithful as well as mirth among
Conservatives, as both realize that this will make it very
difficult for Labor to be a viable force in British politics
for a long time to come. Further food for thought: even
if Corbyn never gets elected Prime Minister, his poisonous
ideas could become dominant in the Labor Party, and remain
so for generations; remember when George McGovern was
the Democrats' presidential candidate in 1972? He was routed
in the general election, carrying only Massachusetts and
the District of Columbia (he failed to win his home state of
South Dakota!), but his ideas took root and shaped the Democrats'
ideology for many years to come. And the late senator, arguably
our most left-of-center elected official in his day, was
nowhere near as rabidly radical as Corbyn is proving to be.

I just love it when our lefties admonish the Republican Party to
not lean to the right, warning that it would wander into extremist
territory and cease to be a viable political party and force here.
But they love it when Obama tries to push us into that very place
with his own radical brand of governance, bolstered by his
Executive Orders and absolute disregard and disrespect for
the Constitution. I suppose that they, and Obama, think of
Jeremy Corbyn as a political hero and soulmate!

The next few years in Great Britain should be most interesting
to watch.


MEM

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Yogi Berra, R.I.P.

A great baseball player, coach, manager, icon,
patriot, and a real piece of Americana has gone to
glory. Yogi Berra, all-star catcher with the New
York Yankees in the twilight of their glory years,
passed away on September 22 at the age of 90.

Having spent my first eight years of life in my
native New Jersey, the early 1960s were the
tail-end years of the great Yankees baseball
dynasty when they were almost always in the
World Series, and everyone followed the Yankees.
Even people who were merely casual fans, or not
even baseball fans but still knew the Yankees were
a special team with a magic that no other team in
baseball --- or any other sport --- has ever possessed
before or since. And Yogi Berra was one of the
players who contributed to that magic. As a wee
lad, I was in the thrall of that team and its catcher.
The Yankees were my team, and Yogi was my
favorite Yankee --- and my favorite player in the
big leagues!

A true defensive stalwart behind the plate, Yogi was
just as effective at the plate, batting .285 while clouting
358 home runs during his 19 seasons playing the game.
He caught the only perfect game (no batter getting on
base by any means: hits, walks, dropped third strike, or
hit by a pitch) in World Series history, the rare gem pitched
by Don Larsen in the 1955 World Series against their then-
crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, a series that Yogi
and his teammates would go on to win. Yogi could beat you
with his glove or his bat, and usually beat opponents with
both.

Yogi was known as much for his off-the-field exploits
as much as those during a game. His unique and humorous
way of stating things, be it a game, a season, the World Series,
a teammate, the weather, a popular restaurant, a movie,
his family, whatever or whoever. Some examples, which
have come to be known as "Yogi-isms":

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded!"
(Yogi remarked about Rigazzi's, a popular restaurant in
Saint Louis)

"It ain't over 'til it's over!"

"It's deja vu all over again!"
(Yogi exclaimed when teammates Mickey Mantle and
Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs in a game,
something that they did many times!)

"You can observe a lot by watching."

"Thank you for making this day necessary!"
(Yogi said to the crowd assembled at Yogi Berra Day,
held at Sportsman's Park in Saint Louis)

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"

"90% of the game (of baseball) is half-mental."

"Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they
won't go to yours."

There are so many more of these delightful malapropisms
and unintentional witticisms from the man, too many to
share here but can easily make a book, one of many
volumes!

Born Lorenzo Pietro Berra in a mostly Italian Saint Louis,
Missouri neighorhood called "The Hill", on May 12, 1925,
his parents Italian immigrants to the United States.
Just across the street from his home lived childhood friend,
fellow baseball catcher, and fellow major league prospect
Joe Garagiola who would go on to play for the hometown
Cardinals, also playing in the World Series (1946). The two
were lifelong friends as well as baseball contemporaries.
A question: does anyone know of another case of two kids from
the same neighborhood, from the same street, both baseball
players playing the same position, both signed by major league
baseball teams? Imagine the odds!

Yogi, having signed with the Yankees, then interrupted his
baseball career to enlist in the U.S. Navy when WWII came
along, wanting to contribute to the war effort. He returned home
a decorated sailor and resumed his budding baseball career,
coming up through the minors to the Bronx Bombers themselves,
playing in 14 World Series, ten of which he and his teammates
won --- both are major league records for a single player.
Yogi was a class act on and off the field, never engaging in
any activity that would cast shame on himself or his team,
becoming the idol of many Little Leaguers and of baseball
fans of all ages. Yogi set many baseball records for a catcher,
and captured the attention, the imagination, and the fancy of
the country not just as a player but as a coach and as manager
for the Yankees and the crosstown Mets (leading both teams
to the World Series). Yogi was a coach for the 1969 "Amazing Mets"
who, after many successive seasons of losing, rose up to win
the National League East Division crown, sweep the Atlanta Braves
in the League playoff series, then whip the heavily favored
American League champion Baltimore Orioles in the World Series,
needing just five games to accomplish the feat. But through it all,
Yogi never let his success make his baseball cap size grow.
He remained humble and was ever thankful for his success,
including being thankful to all who helped develop him into
a premier catcher and ballplayer. Contrast Yogi to many of the
star athletes in sports today; also Yogi never took any "performance
enhancing" substances. He was a natural in the fullest sense of the
word! And along the way Yogi became a part of not only baseball
lore but of Americana, as a true American original.

The beloved Hannah Barbera cartoon character, Yogi Bear, was
named for Yogi Berra. This honor made Yogi Berra an even more
ingrained part of Americana.

So now the Yankee's great number 8, their standout catcher, their
inimitable star has joined the Angels (and I don't mean Anaheim!)
to hold a permanent spot on their roster. God couldn't have drafted
a finer ballplayer, nor a wittier fellow! Rest in peace, Yogi,
and thanks for all the fun!


MEM






Thursday, October 1, 2015

Scott Walker Goes Home

Well, a few days after my post about Gov. Scott Walker's
difficulties on the campaign trail he officially left the
field. Indeed, his mistakes on the stump and what very
likely was bad advice from his advisors caused many
of the GOP faithful, as well as many conservative admirers
to shy away from Walker, causing among other things his
campaign donations and funds to dissipate.

While this is a sad happenstance, Wisconsin will benefit
from his remaining our governor, continuing to work for
needed reforms in how our state government operates and
to help it to work for the good of us all rather than for just
a few entrenched interests with lots of cash and even more
belligerence. The Republican Party presidential candidates
who remain are, for the most part, solid conservatives who
can be trusted to restore restraint, competence, and
constitutional mindfulness to our federal government and
therefore will restore the faith and confidence in it that
people once had in it, before it was encouraged to run amok
by its head of state currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Welcome home, Governor Walker. The United States will yet
have sound leadership once again, and Wisconsin shall continue
to have same.


MEM